"The secret of success is seeing your work primarily as a service to others, and not as a means of personal gain." --J. Donald Walters

Recent studies indicate people want quality customer service.  They also want to pay less for the services and products they receive.  Business establishments in an attempt to meet the financial needs of their customers have lowered prices, cut staff, reduced training and focused on providing lower prices. Unfortunately, it is usually prompt and attentive customer service that suffers. Positive customer service  will keep most people returning to a business more often then lower prices.  Most people are willing to pay a little more if they receive quality service, find the establishment clean and inviting and have a positive shopping experience.

Over the last fifteen years numerous articles and books have been written regarding customer service.  Even with all the how to books and programs available, service today, it is not much better then it was in the mid-eighties. It is on a downward movement.  If your goal is to keep your customers coming back again and again for your products and services, it is important that your organization maintain the basics of customer service.  After all, customers are the lifeblood of any business.  To successfully regain or maintain your customer service edge, consider taking the following steps.

Train, train and train again. 
Communicate your customer service expectations. Show staff in regular training programs how to work with the customers, solve problems and provide a positive environment.    Training does not have to be a full day away from the business.  Focus on a skill for 10-15 minutes every week during staff meetings. Create video or interactive computer training programs that require 10-30 minutes on a weekly basis. A recent study indicated for every $1 an organization spends on customer service training, they received $2.27 back in sales. Not a bad return on the initial investment.

Reinforce positive behavior.  
Someone recently asked how to get staff to use the new skills they had learned for more than a couple of weeks.  New work habits are more likely to stay when management reinforces the use of the new skills through recognition.  This can be done with a simple "great job" or "I liked the way you worked with that client" when you observe the new and correct staff behavior.  Recognize the employee at a staff meeting for  using the new behavior.  Create an incentive program.

Empower staff.  
A major hotel chain empowers every employee including maids, bellmen and janitors to spend up to $2,000 to resolve a customer’s problem on the spot.  Staff feels confident in the decisions they make. They know  management supports their actions and decisions.  Customers know their issues are resolved immediately without the need to repeat their problem numerous times up the chain of command.  Empower staff to resolve challenges on the spot.  Customers will return knowing you genuinely care about their happiness.

Walk your talk.  
Management must set the example for staff.  How management treats  staff, their internal customer, is how staff will respond to the external customers.  A management team, responsive to staff issues, concerns and needs, sets an example. Management must give more than lip service to the need for positive customer service. They must walk the talk.

Involve staff in the decision-making process. 
The front line staff interacts with the customers more than anyone else in the organization.   Make staff input part of the decision process if policies, rules or procedures are changed.  Front-line staff must implement the changes and use the policies daily with the customers.  Make the process as easy on them as possible and workable for the customers.

Take action immediately. 
If you see a problem, do not wait to solve it.  If a customer complains do not pass the responsibility on to someone else to resolve the issue.  Avoid blaming another staff member, computers or technology for the problem.  Apologize that the problem occurred and take immediate steps to correct the issue.

Present a positive image.  
How many times have you passed up the grocery basket with trash, the store covered in graffiti, the shop that offends your sense of smell, or the poorly lit parking lot at night?  All of these are indicators that the business cannot take care of themselves so how could they possibly take care of you the customer.  A positive clean business image physically indicates to the customer that you care about them and can resolve any issue that may arise.

Be interested in your customers.  
Get to know your customers personally. Know  their shopping preferences.  Find out their hobbies, interests and habits.  Call them when you are running a special on a product they or their company uses regularly.  Send the customer a birthday card.  The more interest you have in the customer, the more likely they are to be impressed by your genuine concern and selflessness.

Deliver more then you promise.  
You have sent a clear message that you value them and their business.  Additionally it states that keeping them as a customer is more important than you making a dollar.  Do not however make a promise you cannot keep.  If the service department is running late, tell them you will have the repair completed in 5 hours.  They will be impressed when it is done in three.  When you give more, the customer will give more. The customer is more likely to make referrals, increase the order and come back in the future.

Ask for the customer's opinion.  
Every industry has it's own method of obtaining feedback.  There are the telephone surveys, questionnaires, in business surveys and comment cards.  Ask direct questions.  Would you recommend our product to a friend? How can we improve our service? Surveys elicit valuable customer feedback.  Constant feedback allows a business to react quickly to customer expectations, trend changes and what the customer values most.

No matter how big your business is, one to a thousand employees, you cannot afford to loose your customer service edge.  Simple steps like getting to know your customer, providing more then you promised, keeping a clean facility or conducting a survey can mean the difference between success and failure. Customers are a business's lifeblood. Without them, a company will die.

©1999 Eileen O. Brownell, Chico, CA